VISIT TO EUROPE: RESIDENCE IN" EDINBURGH. 211 



ried, what then ? Now for the " tender and pathetic." I 

 have been through Holyrood House, and have seen Queen 

 Mary's apartments ; they remain precisely as in her time. 

 There are her bed and sofa, wrought by her own hands ; her 

 toilet, with all its female ornaments and appendages. I saw 

 the apartment in which she sat at supper when Darnley and 

 the conspirators entered ; and there is the stain of Rizzio's 

 blood on the floor. I have seen the apartment in the 

 Castle where James I. of England, and VI. of Scotland 

 was born. His mother retired there for safety after the 

 assassination of Rizzio ; it is a little room, not larger than 

 one of your college studies. I have been to see David 

 Hume's mausoleum. It is a large cylindrical stone monu- 

 ment, and records only his name and the time of his birth 

 and death. 



I have seen the house where the sweet pastoral bard, 

 Allan Ramsay, used to live. It is a neat little octagonal 

 lodge, well suited to the moderate wishes, and still more 

 moderate means of a poet. I am happy to inform you that 

 Robert Burns's favorite dog is living in good health. I 

 have not seen him, but hope to be introduced to his dog- 

 ship among other distinguished personages. 



I have been to see the ruins of Roslin Castle, about 

 seven miles from town. Every lover has heard of Roslin 

 Castle, and it is very happy that this celebrated ruin is not 

 near New Haven ; for some of your remarkable young 

 Strephons, in the delirium of success or the paroxysms of 

 despair, might be induced to throw themselves down from 

 the giddy height on which it stands. I am much engrossed 

 by my studies, but am occasionally in Scotch society, where 

 I am treated with much cordiality. I know some of the 

 pretty Scotch lassies and am not a little diverted with 

 their u dinna kens " and other Scotch phrases. Convers- 

 ing the other day with a young lady on the subject, I 

 lamented my ignorance of the beauties of the Scotch lan- 

 guage and begged her to instruct me. She consented, and 



